antietam | week 6 trial aftermath; luke's room

week 6 trial aftermath; luke's room

[ So. All of that happened. And it was terrifying. The possession was bad enough because Adam thought, of course, they were dealing with demons. He wishes that was it. Now it's strange creatures who want people dead, one who's escaped and who knows how many more out there? What if there's one inside him?

Not to mention, he's a normal human. If one of them got him, he would be dead in a moment. That would be it for him, no amount of Luke's defense lessons would save him. So he's in survival mode now, hunched over and defensive. Do monsters even care that he's valued? He sees Luke start to leave and he knows that's his only protection so he follows without thinking.

Luke could be one of them. But he also knows what it's like to be possessed and not in control, and after the nightmares he's pretty sure that's Luke's greatest fear too. Adam is quiet as they go, not saying anything and staying behind him. His eyes glance around nervously like he's expecting an attack at any moment but they reach Luke's room soon enough and Adam doesn't even think to ask permission inside, he just goes.

It's only when the door shuts behind him that he looks at Luke, distraught and terrified. He doesn't know what to say. ]

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[Please don't threaten nice girls, Adam, let Luke be the big bad and scary jerk. He's good at that. All the same, he actually allows himself to move back just a bit under the weight of Adam's shoe and he can't help chuckle to himself. Somehow it's nice to have somebody to actually hang out with even if all they're doing is talking about possession and faux-friendships. Nice. Despite that, he can't help but nods along. Mentor…maybe was a good word for it. He's not sure Frankenstein or himself would use it, but it's definitely A word.]

…did I ever tell you about Chiron? Frankenstein's a little less chill version of him. [But he rolls his eyes upward for the time being.] I think I figured out I have to go back to what I was doing. Being a real hero and all that? Frankenstein said people trust me here. Can't figure out why. [Mm.] But if this really is a second chance, maybe I'll take it. I promised him.

Sort of, I think. [ He's definitely mentioned Chiron before. Also, Adam has heard of him so it's easy to see why Luke would say that in regards to the mentor idea.

Luke's realization is quite different from what Adam told him just the day before, but that's alright. Adam is a naturally selfish person, but even he wants to try to be a hero. It's all the rage, apparently. ] A promise is a promise. Does that mean you won't do anything stupid since you have some responsibility?

[ If that's the case, Adam is all for it. ]

I'll tell you the same thing I told Frankenstein. I don't know how much further I can promise. I made a specific promise to him, and that's pretty much all I can do. [It's complicated. How do you say "I promised to protect people, especially the kids" without insulting one of the kids?]

...I'll do what it takes. I've always told you that. And that also includes making sure your sparring's up to speed to combat against things like aliens. [You didn't think he'd forgotten you were clinging to him during the post-trial fiasco, did you Adam?]

You know, you'd make for a good politician. [ Because he's pretty sure Luke is saying nothing at all. Or at least, he doesn't have the information to make sense of that.

He leans back in the chair at the mention of sparring, glancing away. ] How am I supposed to fight those things? I only thought I'd be going up against people, but that? If you're planning on teaching me how, you're definitely locking yourself in to a lifelong commitment.

[There's an expression suddenly that more or less indicates that yes, he knows, and he's proud of himself. On the other hand there's some truth to that.] How do you think I convinced so many people to join Kronos's side during the war? Not to mention how I convinced him to keep me alive for so long.

[It took a lot of bullshitting, really. He frowns again when Adam moves but he doesn't follow and instead considers that carefully.] I think the point of teaching you how to fight is to protect your life. I know what I'm getting into, but it all depends on if you're gonna commit or not. If not, that's fine. I'll think of something else. But we both need to be clear on what we're doing from here on out. Understand?

Manipulation powers? [ Not that he doesn't think Luke is convincing on his own. Look, Adam was adamantly against the buddy system when it was first brought up, and now he's here.

He takes a moment to think about it. He wants to give Luke a genuine answer. Can he commit to fighting if it might be entirely useless one day? If a monster could kill him in a second? It's a terrifying thought to him and he swallows, then nods .] I want to keep learning. Even offense. Those things aren't the same as people. But if I'm committing, then you're committing. No dropping out. [ Don't fucking die Luke. ]

...that too, but a lot of it was years and years of experience having to explain myself to people.

[But that's no longer relevant. He's patiently waiting for a response and even sits back to lean on his hands, staring at him quietly while he thinks it through. It doesn't surprise him that it's something that needs a lot of consideration. Most people haven't been fighting monsters their entire lives. It's only when Adam commits that he sits up, eyes suddenly bright and a little manic and he really should probably go the fuck to sleep but this is important.]

Don't you remember? I had to be the one to end it. [End his life, he means.] I'm not really that easy to take out. Stick with me, kid. You'll be okay. That scythe you stole from the garden might not be a bad tool to keep training you with. I know I said knife fighters are the most clever fighters and you can nail a lot of good hits, but the nice thing about weapons like spears and scythes is you have the reach taken care of. Keep a knife on you by day, keep the scythe out at night. As far as I know I'm the only one who can break into people's rooms without the key card. As long as you stay off of the vulnerable list, at least the people here can't get to you. [So...hopefully that'll be enough to dissuade random bodysnatchers for a bit.]

[ Adam's eyes go a little wide when Luke is suddenly bursting with energy. He has no idea what he did to cause that, and he's not entirely sure if it's a good thing. Probably good? He'll take it because the advice is nice even if he makes a face at the term kid. People here call him that too much and it's ridiculous. ]

I do want to keep them as far as possible. Scythe it is. Not so sure about the vulnerable list, it's kind of arbitrary. [ And he can't even rely on Luke if he makes it on there. They still got to Light despite Clover's presence. There's an awkward silence for a moment as he tries to figure out how to word something. ] About... rooms. I think maybe having sleepovers on Thursdays isn't a bad idea. I mean, we don't have to. Who knows when those things are going to strike, they probably don't keep a strict schedule. Might be pointless.

[Poor Adam. No one could have ever warned him that he'd be dealing with someone practically buzzing with nervous energy some days. This is one of those days. It's the kind of thing that makes him feel more certain of what needs to be done, that maybe he's settled on something right.]

It might be arbitrary by now but I'm just saying in case it's not. [They'll have to step up their game. That's all. Of course the awkward silence is awkward, as awkward silences are, and he's lifting an eyebrow slowly until Adam spits out his words.] ...it worked for Light and Clover. It's the Friday when things got bad. [It's really not a bad idea, truthfully. It would make sense to have two people in a room to be on guard and attack just in case. Elizabeth most likely had been alone. Perhaps that's why she had been targeted in the first place.] You've already been in here more than anybody else on the ship. May as well make it count. Might not be a bad idea to have a rotating sort of schedule, too. Make it a little harder to track us...if you can think of anyone else you'd want to stay with, that is.

Think I'll try to avoid Fridays. [ Stay out late and wait until later in the day to leave the room like they did last week. They didn't die, so it has a good success rate. ]

Oh, sure, that works. [ He refuses to say that Luke is the only person he trusts to share a room with at the moment. He's been fine alone on Fridays before so he doesn't think it'll hurt. This week just doesn't feel like one to be alone. ] Who would you stay with?

Backbiter. [The answer's pretty quick as well. He doesn't trust enough people to share his space, though there are some he wouldn't object to. But for the most part he'd rather be alone and take care of things himself.] We've been a team for a while, it'd be fine. Avoiding Fridays is probably the best option, but if another alarm goes off I'm going out to see what happened. You don't have to come with me, but...it's kind of part of my new job.

[ Adam raises his eyebrows and then shrugs. If Luke wants to be alone, he's certainly not going to intrude. That was why he felt weird asking in the first place. He doesn't want Luke to stay with him out of pity. ]

You sound like a superhero. [ Don't they have enough of those here? ] I think I'll wait until the announcement. Even though Hancock was planned, I'd really rather not walk in front of a turret. Beyond our experiments.

Those guys wish they were half the heroes we were. [May as well throw in another jab at superheroes anyway. Sorry Adrien and Marinette.] Maybe we should consider not walking in front of a turret ever again. Just sayin'.

[Can we not.] You're free to crash here any Thursdays you want. Just give me a heads up if you plan to. [It might also help to keep some sense of time and humanity, too.]

It helped, didn't it? [ Not the walking in front of a turret part, but. He stands by it. He taps his fingers idly and turns around then to look at the papers on Luke's desk. Why not be nosy since he's already here. ]

You can come by my room, too. So that it's not like I'm scared of the monsters under my bed and need to stay in the grown-up's room. [ Because that's how he feels. ] It's a two-way street. By the way, I'm going to make a log for my whereabouts every hour. That way I can see if there's any lapses in my memory. Maybe you should try that as well.

Surprisingly? It did. I tried and came up with a good idea and so nobody can be mad. And nobody died so that's double the victory. [No, that's not how it works. He doesn't seem to care that Adam's looking at his notes, though he will find that the papers on top seem to be letters. The top-most letter is addressed to someone named Percy Jackson, and Adam may be able to read the first few lines--

"Jackson, you remember what you promised me? I expect good things from you. Don't let me down. I won't know if you're successful. I won't know if you've kept that promise…but don't you dare"

--before Luke reaches up and casually pulls the papers toward him.]

Don't be silly. I doubt the aliens could fit under these beds anyway. [But it's a fair point.] We'll cross-check each other. I know where your room is, you know where mine is. Shouldn't be too hard to keep up with each other. But a memory log…] You really think a log like that would work? It's not a bad idea, I'm just thinking of holes in the plan.

[ Adam is only looking for notes, not letters, so when Luke pulls them away after he accidentally reads part of it, he just gives a wry smile. He never took Luke to be the type to write letters to people. Still, it's not his business, so he doesn't pry. ]

Well, do you see any? I mean, they're probably laying dormant 99% of the time, but if I can catch that 1%, I'll be happy. The most important days would probably be Thursdays and Fridays since they apparently want to get in on the killing, but I just... want to be completely sure.

Edited (belated proofreading) 2016-07-20 20:57 (UTC)

[Aw, did you think his notes would be that easy to find? Nice try. But he hums to himself in thought.]

The only problem I see is that we know the aliens have access to our memories. For all we know, they could easily fill our heads with false memories or control us to write something down so it doesn't look like we're actually being controlled during certain times. [He leans forward, arms draped loosely over his legs and fidgeting a little from his seat.] But I agree with you that Thursdays and Fridays are the most important. We keep track of what we're doing on those days and at those times, we should be able to prevent an alien invasion.

To take it a step further, we could read each other's logs too to confirm we remember where we were each night.

[ It's entirely unknown if the aliens could create false memories, but Adam decides to be on the safe side so he considers that possibility. He wouldn't be surprised, at least, if that ended up the case. That would make finding them a whole lot harder, too. ]

Yeah, double-checking each other would be best. If I were going to possess someone, I'd try to get them as isolated as possible. [ He hesitates. ] That's what happened with me. Weird stuff kept happening and I didn't tell anyone. No one knew until I was strangling Ronan.

Why do you think Kronos only contacted me in dreams at first? [Dreams are a pretty scary thing. He pauses, suddenly realizing that he needs to pay more close attention to what Adam's saying. He doesn't ask the obvious question of "why didn't you tell anyone", if only because he's been getting a sense of who Adam is and also knowing that it'd be a hypocritical question.]

What kind of weird stuff do you mean? [That's the easy question, at least. He'll come back to the "strangling Ronan" part shortly.] Why did that demon target you? Because you were connected to the leyline? Or just because of your connection with Ronan?

[ Adam hums as he thinks about dreams again. He wonders if Elizabeth had any weird dreams. How could you not, when there's something in your head? ]

Like things coming out of my eyes, my eyes going in different directions, my hands moving on their own, appliances near me breaking. [ If he were reasonable, he might have told someone about it. He thinks for a long moment about the next question. ] Sort of. Guess I never told you all of it.

I sacrificed myself to Cabeswater—the forest. I had to. There was a ritual going to take control of it, and I stopped the people who were doing it... but I had to sacrifice something. The most important thing to me. Free will. I gave it my hands and eyes, specifically. I know it sounds stupid to ignore all that stuff happening to me, but it wasn't so different from what happened when Cabeswater was weak. I would hallucinate and the electricity would short-circuit because I didn't know what it wanted. One time, I... totally lost time. One minute I was with Gansey in DC, the next thing I know I was walking along the highway back to Virginia. I'd been walking for hours. So something was wrong with Cabeswater, obviously, but... [ He's trying to justify himself when he realizes he doesn't have to. He shrugs. ]

Anyway, the demon infiltrated Cabeswater, so it got access to my hands and eyes. I was just easy for it.

[It's one of the things he'd like to ask, one of the theories he has. Elizabeth's currently on the backburner though as he listens to Adam and the longer he explains, the higher his eyebrows raise. Adam. Buddy. This is the kind of thing maybe you should have told people? It all sounds a little freaky to him, more out of control than what Kronos was doing to him.]

…yeah you skipped over that part. Cabeswater's the forest that sacrificed itself to save Gansey after he took over for Ronan or however that all went, right? [He looks vaguely irritated at the word "sacrifice" because he's seen what sacrifices do to people, and he's still angry about a few sacrifices that were made in his own world.] How long were you at the loss of your free will? […did he ever get it back? He has to wonder that, too.] It's good that you knew something was up but when it's something like that…[He scrubs a hand over his face.] Do me a favor and promise me you'll tell me if weird shit like that starts happening here, okay?

[ He may have made some mistakes but at least he never tried to destroy the world? ]

Yeah, that's Cabeswater. Uh, I guess I only technically got it back about three months ago, when the forest disappeared. It was about a year? [ It seems like a lot longer than that, but everything happened pretty quickly. When Luke starts to talk about telling him things, Adam scowls. ]

Like I said, it was different. Those sort of things would happen to me from time to time. Obviously here I would be pretty surprised to get weird shit happening to me. [ A huff. ] You would be the first person I'd tell. Even nightmares. [ Don't make him call you out Luke. ]

[Excuse you it was only western civilization?? There's a difference. (No there's not...) He ignores Adam's scowl like he usually does because Luke's sort of a jerk that way, only really half-believing that it was really that different. He's already developed Opinions on Cabeswater for disarming someone's free will and not being much easier to work with, though he knows better than to pick a fight immediately.]

Still a year too long. [He settles for a sigh to play it off as being disappointed rather than annoyed. On the other hand, somewhat selfishly, he feels better knowing that those things have turned Adam into who he is now.] If that's your way of trying to get me to tell you about any nightmares I have, I don't know what to tell you.

[ Adam takes in a breath. He would agree because his free will is, obviously, everything to him, but he never really hated Cabeswater. In fact, he loved it. ]

It made me powerful. I'd never felt like that before. So I was... grateful to it. [ He looks over at him with a smile. It's weirdly fond. ] No, it's my way of telling you that if you never told anyone about the secret messages you were getting from a dead titan king in your sleep, then you can't blame me for what I did. We're both stupid.

[He opens his mouth to argue that it was different because he was dumb and impressionable and he gets about two seconds into that line of thought when he realizes that no. No, he and Adam were roughly the same age when Adam lost his free will and Luke started siding with Kronos. So okay. Maybe they were both stupid.]

He wasn't that dead. [Not the point.] And anyway…telling anybody about Kronos would've gone against what we were trying to do. Power was really that important to you?

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